Storytime
by ClemmyClue102
Summary: When Clementine can't sleep Sarah tries to help her with a bedtime story, but she unknowingly says something that leaves the younger girl perturb. Unable to forget what was said, Clementine finds comfort in talking to Luke.


_**Another new story! I hope you guys like it!**_

**When Clementine can't sleep Sarah tries to help her with a bedtime story, but she unknowingly says something that leaves the younger girl perturb. Unable to forget what was said, Clementine finds comfort in talking to Luke.**

_**Enjoy.**_

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><p>It was one of those nights. One of those night where Clementine couldn't sleep. Try as she might, she just could not fall asleep. She sat up from her spot, causing her bed buddy to groan. Clem froze in spot, had her movement woken the person sleeping so comfortably beside her?<p>

"Clem, are you okay?" The tired voice was full of concern.

Clementine nearly groaned herself, her question had been answered.

"I'm fine." Clementine assured. Tried to assure.

"Are you sure?" The person pressed on.

"Yeah. Just, go back to sleep, Sarah." Clementine ordered.

The room went silent and after a few minutes Clem thought Sarah had fallen back to sleep. She laid back down, watching the ceiling, hoping it would help her doze off. It wasn't helping. She let out a sigh, right when a quiet whisper rang out. "Clem."

Clementine nearly jumped. "Sorry, Did I wake you?" 'Again?' Clem thought.

"No. Well...before, but this time I wasn't sleeping." Sarah admitted.

"Okay...Then, sorry for...before." Clem said.

"It's okay." Sarah smiled. "Aren't you tired?" She asked.

Clementine didn't respond.

"Why aren't you going to sleep?" Sarah continued to question.

"...I'm sorry I woke you up Sarah. I won't do it again." Clementine apologize again; Hoping maybe now Sarah would just let it drop.

"Don't worry about that. I just wanna know why you aren't sleep yet." Clem felt the older girl move on the bed, turning to face her, as she continued to talk. "I thought little kids got tired early."

Clem turned to her side as well, to face Sarah. "I'm not a little kid, Sarah." She said defensively.

"Okay, okay." Sarah shrugged, causing Clementine to roll her eyes.

"Hey, Clem." Sarah called, after a few moments.

"What is it, Sarah?" Clementine grumbled.

"If you can't sleep I'll tell you a story!" Sarah exclaimed.

"What?" Clementine asked, as the girl hopped down from the bed and moved to the dresser.

"Sarah, what are you doing?" Clementine asked, keeping watch on the door, just in case Carlos decided to bust through it at any moment. She didn't want Sarah to get in trouble, but if she wasn't in bed, there was no way that she could pretend she was asleep if need come to it. "Sarah-"

"Found it!" Sarah cried, tiptoeing back over to the bed and jumping back in. Flipping on the lamp switch, she sat down next to Clem. "Look."

"What's-" Clementine sat up so she could lean over the girl's shoulder and see what she had found.

"I found it, in the little closet, in the living room." Sarah explained.

"You're always finding things Sarah." Clementine muttered.

"Yeah. You should see some of the stuff that I found under the porch."

"Did you find a lot of stuff?" Clem asked, feeling a bit curious.

"Yeah. There was even a bike under there, but it's like, little kid size- I mean, your size." Sarah scratched her head. "Uh, I'll show you tomorrow...If you want." Sarah offered.

Clementine gave her a small smile. "Yeah. That sounds fun."

"Okay. It's a promise!" Sarah beamed before turning her attention back to the book, Clementine too turned her attention to the book.

"Goldilocks and the Three Bears?" Clementine read.

"Yep!" Sarah cried happily.

"Okay?"

"Have you ever heard this story before?" Sarah asked, not wanting to bore the girl if she had.

Clementine thought for a moment. The title sounded familiar, she must have heard it back when she was...in school...The thought of school made her let out a sad sigh.

"Yeah, but it was a long time ago." She answered, sadly.

"Wanna hear it again?" Sarah sounded a little too eager.

"...Sure." Clem responded.

"Okay." Sarah smiled brightly, not noticing her friend's change in mood, and begin reading. "Once upon a time there was a little named Goldilocks- You know, Goldilocks sort of reminds me of you."

Clem looked confused at that.

"Except you don't have blond hair." Sarah continued. She looked to her friend, noticing the confusion still planted on Clementine's face, Sarah decided to explain herself. "You both come out of the woods and sneak into a house...Well, you snuck into a cabin, so it's a little different..."

Clementine's eyes grew wide before she turned away. Sarah was right. That was true but still... "I had no other choice Sarah." She replied, coldly.

"Yeah. I know..." Sarah muttered feeling bad for bringing it up.

There was an awkward silence before Sarah broke it. "Yeah...So...Um...Goldilocks went on a walk through the forest and pretty soon, she came upon a house." Sarah continued the story, with Clem barely paying attention until... "On the kitchen table, there were three bowls of porridge. Goldilocks was hungry. She tasted the porridge from the first bowl. "This porridge is too hot!" she exclaimed. So, she tasted the porridge from the second bowl. "This porridge is too cold," she said. So, she tasted the last bowl of-" Sarah suddenly stopped reading, eyes going wide.

"What?" Clementine asked turning to the girl.

"Shh..." Sarah hushed her, quickly reaching over to turn off the light switch, but it was too late. Right before she could turn off the light, the door opened.

Both girls turned their attention to the figure who stood in the doorway.

"Girls! I said lights out an hour ago." Carlos scolded.

"Sorry dad." Sarah apologized, looking as if she had just saw someone kill a puppy.

"It was my fault. I woke Sarah up." Clementine was quick to take the blame, as always.

"No. Clem couldn't sleep...so I was reading her a bedtime story." Sarah admitted, holding up the story book.

Carlos rubbed his chin for a moment. "You want a bedtime story?"

"Yeah." Sarah answered. "Right Clem?"

Clementine gave an honest nod, feeling her cheeks flush a bit from embarrassment.

"Okay." Carlos moved into the room to sit on the edge of the bed. Sarah, eagerly waiting for the story.

"Once upon a time, there lived... a doctor and his daughter."

"That sounds like us." Sarah smiled.

Carlos smiled back at her with a nod. "Yes." He continued. "The daughter was a...a princess... And everyday...She would, uh, have lots of fun...with her best friend."

Clementine listened waiting for something else to happen, something interesting, or cool. But Carlos continued, "The end."

"What?!" Clementine cried as Carlos stood, and started towards the door.

"Wait! That wasn't much of a story." Clem complained.

"Goodnight ladies!" Carlos called back, flipping off the light switch, before leaving the room, shutting the door behind him.

Clem sighed as they were left in darkness. For a few moments, to be sure the coast was clear, she stayed silent. After waiting a while, she called out to Sarah.

"Sarah." No response. "Sarah, you can read now." Nothing. "Hey, Sarah. Your dad's gone now. I don't think he's coming back anytime soon." She began to shake the girl's shoulder, when she noticed soft snoring coming from her. Stopping, she studied Sarah's face and noticed her eyes were closed. She was knocked out.

'Did that "story" seriously put her to sleep?' Clementine wondered in amazement. Still unable to sleep and now wanting to hear a 'good' bedtime story, Clementine stood and moved through the darkness towards the dresser. Feeling around she found the book. Picking it up she moved to the light switch and flipped it up, causing her friend to stir. Not wanting to wake her again, Clementine decided to find somewhere else to read.

Silently, sneaking from the room, she moved through the empty hallway and onto the creaking stairs, hoping everyone in the cabin would be asleep. She made it downstairs and headed into the living room. Plopping down on the couch, she settled the book and her lap and flipped it open.

"Boo." Clem jumped as hands covered her eyes.

Gasping, she tried to shake the hands off her face.

"Guess who." The person moved away, but Clementine knew that voice. She quickly turned to see, who it was. "Luke, you scared me!" She hissed at him, trying to keep her voice down, so she didn't wake the others.

Luke chuckled. "I'm sorry, Clem." He said, although, she could see that he clearly was not sorry.

He ruffled her hat, before sitting next to her. "I thought you'd be asleep by now."

"As you can see, I'm not."

"You better not let Carlos catch you up this late." Luke jokingly warned.

"He's not my dad." Clementine stated turning to him and crossing her arms.

"You'd still be in for one hell of a scolding."

That was true. Although, Clementine didn't quite understand why people thought they could just boss her around. They weren't her parents. Yet, no matter how much she pointed that fact out to Carlos, it didn't stop him from nagging her every time he caught her up late.

"So why are you still up?" Luke asked.

Clementine closed the book in her hands, before responding. "I couldn't sleep."

"Bad dream?" Luke asked.

"No."

"Just feeling restless, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Same." Luke admitted.

It was quiet for a while. Luke watched as the girl ran her fingertips over a book that she was holding in her lap.

"What ya reading?" He sing-song out.

She silently turned the book to face him.

"Goldilocks and the three bears?" He read out loud. "I remember that from when I was a kid."

"You do?" She asked, eyes wide.

Luke chuckled, "Yep. I remember reading that book."

Clementine narrowed her eyes, looking thoughtfully at the book, before turning to Luke with a questioning look and asking, "Is it really that old?"

"O-Old?!" Luke cried out in shock.

"Shh..." Clementine brought a finger to her lips, shushing him.

"But- But-" Luke stammered.

"You're gonna wake the others." She warned.

"...Yeah...You're right." Luke responded, lowing his voice. After a few moments he spoke again. "Hey, Clem,"

"Hm?" She tilted her head to the side.

"How old am I?" Luke asked her.

"What?" She asked back. How was she supposed to know that?

"How old do you think I am?" He repeated.

"I-I don't know." Why was he asking her this?

"Oh, Come on." Luke turned to her. "Take a guess."

She shrugged. "I really don't know."

"Well, how old do I look?" Luke asked.

"Umm...Like...20 something?" Clementine offered.

"Twenty what?" Luke smirked.

"Twenty two?" Clementine guessed.

Luke shook his head. "Nope."

"Twenty three?"

"Keep going, keep going."

"Twenty four?"

"Nu-uh. Higher."

"Twenty-five?" Clem asked, sounding desperate now.

"Close. One more." Luke urged on with a small laugh.

"You're twenty-six?" Clementine asked.

Luke smiled at the girl, "Bingo."

"Yes!" Clementine exclaimed, giving a little fist pump, despite the fact that she had guessed wrong so many times.

"Still think I'm old?" Luke asked.

Clem arched a brow at him, "Want me to be honest?"

"Clem..." Luke whined, giving her his famous puppy dog eyes.

Clementine sent him an apologetic look, reaching out a hand she gave him a few pats on the head. "It's okay, Luke. I'm just joking." She said with a fake sympathy in her voice. "...You're not old. It's just been a long, long, long, long time since you were a kid."

Luke swatted her hand away. "Why so many longs?" Luke questioned with a pout.

Clem shrugged.

"Well, I guess you are right. I haven't been your age since- Wait how old are you?"

"Eleven." Clementine answered.

"Eleven, huh?" Luke rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I haven't been eleven since fifteenth years ago."

"That's a long time."

"Yeah. Yeah, it is..." Luke sighed. "I take that back. Maybe I am old." Luke pouted.

Clementine smiled. "Just a little?"

Luke smiled back. "Yeah. Just a bit."

"What are you doing awake, Luke?" Clementine asked.

"I just came down to get a drink..." Luke told her.

"I...see." Clementine nodded.

"I couldn't sleep either." Luke explained. "I guess we're twins."

"Ew..." Clementine said under her breath, but Luke had caught it.

"What do you mean ew?" Luke asked, pretending to be offended.

"I don't wanna be your twin." Clem replied honestly.

Luke laughed. "That's not very nice, Clem."

"Sorry.." Clementine apologized with a giggle, showing she wasn't really sorry.

"Not." Luke chuckled. Clementine smiled.

The two fell into silence again. Clem opened the book and begin to read some of it.

"So..." Luke broke the silence again. "How're you liking that book?" He asked.

"...I don't really like it." Clem admitted.

"Hm?" Luke gave her a confused look. "Why not?

She was silent for a moment before whispering, "I...I just hate it."

"Why?" Luke asked, noticing how the girl's mood suddenly change to one of sadness. "Clem?"

"Because...Because, Sarah said..." She trailed off, lowering her gaze to the ground.

"What did Sarah say to you?" Luke asked, in a suspicious tone. Sarah didn't seem like the type to bully people, but looks can be deceiving. And if Sarah was looking for someone smaller than her to pick on, then Clem, being the smallest person in the group, automatically won. If that was the case, Luke would have to have a talk with Carlos about it.

"Clementine, look at me." He ordered when she didn't answer. She shook her head gently. "Clem,"

"What?" She snapped.

"Look at me." He pleaded.

"I don't have to look." Clementine whispered.

Luke couldn't help but smile, for once she was sounding like a little kid. "Clem." Nothing. "Cleeeem!"

She was ignoring him, but not for long. He reached over and grabbed her hat off her head.

"Hey!" She snapped.

"Shhh, you'll wake the others." He mimicked back the words she had used earlier.

Clementine groaned. "Give it back, Luke."

"Give what back?" Luke teased.

"My hat!" Clementine cried.

"Not 'till you talk to me." He said, placing the hat on his own head.

Now it was her turn to pout. She crossed her arms over her chest with a huff.

"What Sarah say to you?" He asked.

"Nothing." Clementine claimed.

"You can tell me." He tried to assure the girl.

She didn't respond, keeping her arms crossed and the pout on her face. "I won't tell anyone. If you don't want me to say anything, I won't."

"Just give it back." She ordered.

"Fine, fine." He sighed and reluctantly handed the hat back. "I can tell you don't want to talk about it."

She nodded, placing the book on the end table to her right.

"But I can also tell, that it really upset you." Luke continued. "Maybe you don't want to talk about it now, but if you want to later, I'm here."

Clementine looked up at him before looking down at her lap. It was silent for a few moments before she spoke. "I don't want to be like her."

"Like who?" Luke asked. What was she talking about?

"Goldilocks."

Luke laughed at that. "What?"

"It's not funny." Clem snapped in annoyance at being laughed at.

"Okay, okay. Sorry." Luke said holding back a grin.

"Sarah said that I reminded her of Goldilocks." Clementine explained.

"Did she?" Luke asked, finding humor in this conversation.

"Yes." Clem nodded, before continuing. "But, I don't want to be like Goldilocks."

"Why not?" Luke asked.

"Because...She's a thief." Clementine responded as if it were completely obvious.

"Oh..." Luke rubbed the back of his neck, feeling guilt for laughing."I guess, that is true, when you really think about it...Jeez, I didn't know kid stories were so sinister."

"What does that mean?"

"Disturbing or uh, evil." Luke defined for her.

Clem looked a bit confused. Goldilocks was a thief so technically, that made her bad, right? But, evil, she didn't know about that. She'd seen some evil and as far as she could tell, Goldilocks wasn't going around attacking people or killing them. Clementine looked over to Luke as a thought came to her head. "Luke,"

"Yep?"

"What's the difference between a thief and a bandit?" She asked.

"Well..." Luke thought for a moment, "A bandit robs and a thief steals."

"Isn't robbing and stealing the same thing?"

"Not exactly." Luke started, "A robber is someone who uses violence, a thief usually takes while the victim is away, ya know, to avoid confrontation."

"So what would that make me? You guys weren't away, but I was trying to avoid confrontation."

"You're a little girl who needed help and wasn't getting it." Luke said, gently tapping her hat.

"But...Stealing is bad." Clementine said, as if to remind him.

"Yes, it is. Stealing is bad. But ya wanna know, what I think? I think as long as there's a legitimate reason, stealing out necessity is forgivable."

"What about my reason?" She sounded nervous. "Was it...legitimate?"

"I think so." Luke nodded, giving the girl a small reassuring smile. "Here's the thing, Clem, stealing is never 'right' but, with the world the way it is now, it's not about right and wrong anymore."

"My friend said that too." Clementine mutter sadly as she remembered her old group.

"Well, when you're cornered, it's usually try or die." Luke stated. "Think of it this way, there's a difference between stealing a car and stealing food because you're starving..." Luke noticed a depressed look on the girls face. "What's wrong?"

"My friends and I...We were really hungry before...after the this first started, and we had to steal food from a car. We thought it was abandoned...It caused a lot of trouble." She explained

"Just because you take something...it doesn't make you a bad person." Luke told her. "A lot of people have done it, at least once." He added.

"Have you stolen something before?" She questioned.

"Uh...Y-Yeah." Luke stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck, looking embarrassed.

Seeing Clementine looking up at him expectantly, Luke let out a sigh. "I use to hang out with this group of kids, not the best bunch." Luke explained.

"What did they do?" She asked curiously.

"They... got in trouble a lot."

Clementine raised an eyebrow "With the police?"

"Yeah." Luke nodded. "At school too."

"I didn't get in trouble in school." Clementine said proudly.

"I guess you were a good kid." Luke smiled. "You're lucky. Detention sucks." Luke chuckled before growing serious.

"Anyways, they'd uh... they'd steal all the time."

"Did the police catch them?" She asked, wondering how the didn't get caught if the stole all the time.

"Naw...Well, eventually, but that wasn't 'till much later."

"Oh." Clementine thought maybe the were 'Robbers' and they'd steal when no one was around. That was probably why the took so long to get caught.

"They'd always brag about what the took. Since they never get caught I thought I could do it too. So one day, when I was with Nick, we were coming from school and had to pass by the candy store to get home. We dropped in, even though neither of us had money. I had got it into my head that I really wanted a lollipop, so I stole two, gave one to Nick."

"A lollipop?" Clementine questioned in disbelief.

"I know it's stupid." Luke admitted, sheepishly.

"Yeah. That's pretty stupid." Clementine agreed.

Luke chuckled at the girl before continuing. "So, Nick, he starts freakin' when he realizes I stole it. He wanted to give them back. I got scared, he was gonna blow our cover. Told him to shut up, that we couldn't bring them back 'cuz they'd call the police and we'd go to jail. We end up going to his house and his mom asked what we did that day. Nick was too scared about what happened and ended up spilling the beans."

Clementine let out a small laugh. Luke sent her a smile.

"What happened then?"

"His mom called my mom...And they brought us back to the store and made us apologize. After that Pete spent hours telling us about the severe punishments in other countries for stealing...Nick was wailing. And I'll admit, he scared the crap outta me." Luke thought about giving her an example of those punishments, but stopped himself not wanting to scare the child. "I was grounded for two weeks."

"How old were you?"

"Maybe nine or ten." Luke shrugged. "You'd think I'd have learned my lesson by then, but no."

"You stole more than once?" Clementine asked. "How old were you this time?"

"About fourteen, I think."

"Were you a stupid kid?" Clementine questioned with a giggle.

"Yeah, Clem." Luke chuckled. "I guess I was."

"Did you get caught?"

"Yep." Luke replied.

Clementine's eyes widen, "That must have been scary."

"It was..." Luke nodded. "I'm not proud of it, but yeah."

"What was it this time?" She asked, eyes sparkling with anticipation as she to hear more about Luke's idiotic past.

Luke exhaled a breath, "It happened a few years later. This new video game had just came out. I wanted it really bad. Nick and I had tried to come up with ways to make some money. And...the money wasn't coming in fast enough, we were completely broke. I knew that game was gonna sell out quick."

"So you stole it?" Clementine added.

"You got it, kid." Luke gave her a nod. "At school, my "friends" were all talking 'bout the game. They asked if I played it. I told them, I couldn't afford it. Then, they suggested I just go an take it. Said if I did it right the people at the store wouldn't even know. I didn't wanna go alone, I brought Nick with me-"

"Why would he go with you after what happened last time?" Clementine wondered aloud.

"It'd been a few years, that incident was long behind us." Luke answered before continuing his story. "So we walked in completely natural, mostly because Nick had no idea what I was planning." Luke sighed. "So I take the game. Nick sees me and automatically starts freaking out. He keeps telling me to put it back, which, of course starts attracting attention."

"Why did you bring Nick with you?" Clementine cuts in once more.

Luke rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't think he'd do that again. It'd been five years!"

Clementine nodded in understanding. "Okay. What happened next?"

"I decide we should leave before we got caught. I was so nervous, my heart was pounding as we walk out of the store. We get out and I'm thinking we got away scot-free. So, we stopped to get drinks. Nick's still completely shaken up, but I'm like whatever. Few minutes later a man comes up to us and goes, "Do you wanna pay for whatever you took?" and we're like "Oh shit!"

"Wow...!" Clementine exclaimed.

"Yeah, wow." Luke agreed. "When that guy came walking toward us, I knew we were busted and my instinct was right, he was a security guard."

"Did you go to jail?"

"No. We got lucky." Luke moved a hand through his hair, remember how terrified he really was that day. "He took us back to the store and led us into this back room. He tells us to empty out our bags, we do, but the games weren't in there. I wanted to try to act like I didn't have it, but Nick was acting too weird for me to do that. Plus, we'd probably just end up getting in more trouble. So, I take the game from my jacket and place it on the table. They sit us down and at this point Nick's begging them to give us a warning and let us go, but since we were both minors our parents had to come and release us. They took our names and numbers and call up our folks. Then they took all of our information down and had us sign a trespassing form. Saying we weren't allowed to come back. My mom was so pissed she couldn't even look at me."

"What about Nick?" She asked.

"Well, Nick ending up telling his mom on me. He wasn't allowed to hang around me for a long long time, not that he wanted to. My mom made me get a job and work to pay off both Nick and my fines. Lesson learned. It took a long time getting them to trust me after that." Luke explained. "Ever been punish the whole summer vacation?"

"No...I haven't been in school since really long. So I didn't get a lot of summer vacations." Clementine replied. Talking about school was making her miss being in school.

"Well, I'll tell ya...It sucks."

"I bet."

"You know how it is now, no TV, no games..."

"Yeah."

"It was like the, entire summer break."

"Now it's been like that for two years, so it doesn't really matter." Clementine pointed out before sighing, "I do miss TV though."

"Yeah...Me too." Luke sighed as well. "Well, imagine that as a k-" Luke stopped himself. He was about to say kid, but isn't that what Clementine was. She was so mature that it was easy to forget she was still just a child.

"As a what?" Clementine voiced her confusion.

"Uh...Never-mind, Clem."

She opened her mouth to talk, but before she could asked Luke spoke again. "Nick didn't talk to me for a long while. He was super pissed. After that, I never stole again."

"What did your friends say?"

"They laughed at me. But a few months later, they're all being sent to military school or in juvenile detention.

"What's juvenile detention?" Clementine asked.

"It's like a jail for kids." He informed the girl.

"Okay...Were your parents disappointed in you?"

"Of course." Luke answered. "I lost the trust I work so hard to build back, again.

"...I hope my parents aren't disappointed in me." Clementine muttered.

"I don't think they would be. You did what you had to do. That's completely different from stealing out of greed."

"What about Goldilocks?"

"She was just being greedy." Luke responded. "Besides, she wasn't just guilty of theft. There was also destruction of property and home invasion.

"But I broke a hole in the shed." Clementine decided to bring up. Wouldn't that be destruction of property.

"After we locked ya in there." Luke replied, looking guilty at the mention of the shed.

"I snuck into the house, so would I be guilty of home invasion?" Clementine asked.

"Naw, Clem." Luke disagreed.

"How's it different?" Clementine gazed up at him getting confused

"The difference is you needed help." Luke said simply.

"I still stole stuff." Clementine tried to argue.

Luke wasn't about to let the girl win this battle. "Okay, how 'bout this, instead of calling it stealing lets call it borrowing."

"But doesn't borrowing mean I would have to return the things I took?" She asked. She couldn't really return any of the things she took. She had spilled the peroxide. And she used the needle and thread to sow up her arm. There was no way they were getting that stuff back.

"You right..." Luke agreed, deciding to rethink his choice of words. "Okay, how 'bout we just consider it a trade."

"But I have nothing to give you." Clementine said.

Luke place a comforting hand on her head. "You've given more than enough. kid."

"I have?"

"Yeah, you've been so much help around here. I don't know what we'd do without you."

"Luke..." His word were nice. They made her heart feel...warm.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." She said. She could feel her emotions beginning to get the better of her, but she tried her best to hold them back.

"For what?" Luke asked, a surprised look on his face.

"For being so nice." The words came out of her mouth before she could stop them.

Luke smiled. "I can't help it. That's just the way I am." Luke joked. "If you weren't so cute and lovable I might treat ya differently."

"I guess I'm lucky than." Clementine grinned.

"I guess so." Luke said, returning her grin with one of his own.

He noticed her gaze shift back to the book that laid abandoned on the table. "Don't worry about that book."

"I'll try not to."

"You wanna know a big difference between Clementine and Goldilocks." Luke started.

"What?" Clementine sent him a look, telling him to keep going.

Luke looked her in the eyes, "One of them is a very valuable little girl, can you guess who?"

Clementine quickly looked away. "...You're just saying that."

"You really think so?"

"...Are you?" She asked, once again locking her eyes with his.

"No. Clem, you really don't know how great you are." Luke wrapped an arm around her shoulder."We need you, Clem."

Clementine returned the hug. "You're great too, Luke."

"Are you just saying that?" The man teased.

"No." Clementine whined. "I'm happy I met you guys."

"Seems like we both need each other, huh?"

Clementine smiled. "Yeah...Thanks for cheering me up."

"Of course." Luke sent her a smile. "We're family. We help each other out."

Clementine felt tears welling in her eyes at the word "Family", but she quickly rubbed them away.

Luke glance over to the girl and noticed her rubbing her eyes. She must have been tired. "You should get some sleep, Clem." He suggested.

"I...I will." Clementine agree, standing from the couch, picking the book up. "...Night, Luke.

"Night, Clem."

Luke was surprised when he felt small arms wrap around his neck and a voice whisper in his ear another small, "Thank you." Before the girl pulled away and retreated up the stairs.

"Anytime, kiddo." Luke replied, with a smile.


End file.
